About Gup Shup
Welcome to this space. Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Raj Singh. I was born and raised in Toronto, ON, Canada, and am currently a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, MA, USA. My research at M.I.T. is devoted to understanding gup shup, an idea to which this space is dedicated. It actually wasn’t until I spent about a year and a half in Amsterdam that I realized I wanted to devote my research (and other) efforts to understanding and contributing to this idea, to gup shup.
“Gup shup” is a Punjabi term meaning something like the English “chit chat.” It conveys the idea of conversation among people in a very relaxed and open atmosphere. The term is formed by a linguistic process called “reduplication,” something like the way in English we’d say “coffee shmoffee.” The point of this space is to enable gup shup to occur freely, without any artifical restrictions imposed by outside influences, the way we find in other “public” forums, such as the corporate media.
My research on gup shup explores the formal mechanisms that allow it to occur so efficiently. It uses tools from linguistics, theoretical computer science, probability theory, game theory, and mathematical logic. Thus, to study gup shup, I must be able to engage in gup shup with many different scientific disciplines. However, at another level, it is a well-establiished fact that gup shup is crucial for the existence of democracy. I will use this space to both relay information about the formal mechanisms governing gup shup, as well as to provide a space in which the free-flowing activity of gup shup may occur. As such, I hope that this site will contribute to what Jurgen Habermas has called “the public sphere,” a place where citizens can debate, question, argue, share, and perhaps agree on issues that occupy their thoughts, their hearts, or any other aspect of their being.
Over drinks one night, I remarked to a good friend of mine, Daniel Loreto, that the internet allows for the empowerment of the public in ways that didn’t quite exist before. Since he’s much smarter than me, he corrected me, arguing that it actually makes democracy feasible for perhaps the first time in human history. I agree. Perhaps you don’t. Let us discuss.
Anonymous said
The internet to democracy is a double-edged blade. When weilded carefully, and correctly it becomes the tool of the free. Often times the internet is used to numb whatever feelings of true individuality we have left. We are all annoyed by pop-ups and ad-banners, but they subconciously leave a footprint. There is a reason government and corporations are placing more and more emphasis on internet activity, it has not yet become viewed as part of the capitalist machine. (Capitalism being the chief threat to democracy in the modern era) The internet is a wonderful tool that can possibly assist greatly in the first democracy of man, but can also 1). slow the revolution due to the anti-social tendancies inherent with its use 2). be used by the enemies of democracy to keep the people apathetic.
singhr said
Yes, I agree in general with your note. However, one needs to be clear about where the dangers lie. The vigilance you call for regarding the internet applies, ceteris paribus, for any technology. I don’t think that the internet is “inherently” anti-social, just as phones, or televisions, or cars are not inherently anti-social. They are devices that can be put to many uses, some of which promote social bonds (as phones and the internet often do) and some of which don’t. It’s largely up to us what we do with them.
The internet has so far managed to avoid falling under corporate control. As you are no doubt aware, many companies are fighting to change that (eg. AT&T, Verizon). If you google “net neutrality” you should get links to the debate. Republicans and democrats both support the corporate agenda here in this underhanded attempt to control the content that gets to your computer, the speed at which it gets there, etc. So yes, the internet is powerful tool which can be used to either strengthen or destroy democracy, and, as usual, people must be vigilant to keep it as a democracy-promoting device. This task becomes difficult, of course, since most people don’t know about such sneaky backroom moves, as the mainstream press has largely remained silent on the issue.
ManpreeT c said
Singh Rocks and we are proud of you our boy !!!
Shawndeep Chaniana said
http://badmash.tv/
Shawndeep Singh said
great and execellent !
multiblog said
The technology by itself can’t be good or bad. All depends from the people who use it.
dr.sadat anwar said
hay mr.Raj Singh.my nam e is sadat anwar,i belong to pakistan i m 22 years old and a student of medical in5th course in russia. but actually i m also a punjabi.i like the punjabi music poetry culture and also the sikh which maintain the punjabi cultures and also give music and also others thing to new dirction.i m a very big fan of u.also i leasoned that a lot of sikhs are living in canada(toronto).but unfatefully i dont have any relative in canada.i want to see canada and also the culture of sikhs those r living in canada.
pls tell me wat should i have to do for this.its my dream to see this.
i ll wait for ur reply
ur obedient
dr.sadat anwar
Oljefsa said
Hi!
How are you?
Saurabh Kumar Mishra said
Hey Raj
I am a small time researcher in Linguistics from India and would like to have a fairer idea of what your research concerns. Hope you find some time.
duparracy said
The old order. You can see
here
naisioxerloro said
Hi.
Good design, who make it?
Idetrorce said
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
iodidspergo said
Cool design, great info!
Top earring links!
Metrophanes said
Cool.
hiral said
we are intrested jion vicharkranti group please help me
Baidhar Mallick said
Many many thanks to Mr.Raja Sing for creating Gup Shup free sms.It is a great contrybution to society of Raja.Gog may bless you for your effot.
Baidhar Mallick said
ok
hiral said
hume sms chahiye vicharkranti ka hume kya karna pade
hiral said
***
vajid said
va
hiral said
ok
Rishikesh said
hey Hiral!
The spelling of the group is vichaarkranti (with double ‘a’ in ‘vichaar’)
Simply type an SMS- JOIN vichaarkranti & send it to 567673434.
Do take care of the spellings..
Do join this group.. you yourself will come to how great thoughts vichaarkranti sends every morning..! I love this group the most!
God Bless & Happy Diwali!
syedasif said
asif app ka nama
azmat mall, sialkoti said
hello there mr. Raj! your research articles in gupshup are great but quite boring. I dont mean no harm, but they are not fun for an ordinary person like me. I believe in the simplicity of comments, things that jump out of your heart & invite you to say something. I would suggest you coin a short statement or a phrase related to your research & invite peoples deepest thoughts on the subject. For instance, you could say, is Punjabi lingo better than Urdu or Hindi? we are living in a divided Punjab, only Sikhs have manopoly of Punjab, something like that. I would certainly give you my honest opinion. Have a great day.
azmat mall, Sialkoti
sandrar said
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.